Personal Disability Insurance

[Old Monkey]

We met with an insurance broker today and discussed life insurance, retirement accounts, college savings accounts and personal disability. So far my broker isn't having any luck finding anyone who wants to insure a tree climber for disability. He says Lloyd's of London would for a hefty price but no one else so far wants to touch it. Who has personal disability insurance here? Do they know what it is that you do?

 

[top hopper]

Long term or short?

 

[sotc]

check with tcia, they may have a connection

 

[Old Monkey]

Long term or short?

I am not certain.

 

[top hopper]

Well, there is a substantial difference between the two. Either one will be hard to find for our industry without paying through the nose for it.

I could never find it a good rate so I never carried it.
But now I'll get LTD with my new job which basically will pay 60% of wages after 90 days. I can increase that amount out of pocket.

Much better than what I had.

 

[Old Monkey]

Ha you're gloating aren't you. I am not certain I will find anything affordable if we are honest about what exactly I do to make a living.

 

[top hopper]

Gloating? Me?

Seriously though, I went through the same thing a few years back, trying to find a good short term dis. policy. I dont recall any companies, but they were ridiculously expensive. So expensive, that after some searching I just gave up and decided to go without. I looked at the numbers and it would have been just as affordable to carry a comp policy on myself, which was also a joke.

Your best to be honest about your profession, you dont want to pay the premiums for a policy that wont cover you if you get hurt doing something the policy excludes.

 

[Old Monkey]

Dishonesty doesn't work for me as I am an exceedingly bad liar.

 

[sotc]

I am not certain.

haha, the million dollar question!

 

[Old Monkey]

Do you have short term personal disability Willie?

 

[sotc]

i have something through my wifes work and major accident through aflac. wifes been bugging me to bug my insurace man about life insurance. this has a bad smell to it

 

[Burnham]

I don't know, Willie...once you have a child the stakes go up. I have no idea what your situation is, but if you have a house payment that would be difficult for your wife to keep up with if you were no longer in the picture, and the costs of raising a son, helping his future look as bright as you want it to be, then life insurance might be a wise investment.

Your wife should look at the same issues for her own life insurance too, sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.

Melanie and I never have felt the need...no kids, home paid for, strong retirement plan, fairly substantial savings, and some good investments...but we are not exactly average.

Look at it with eyes wide open...easy to be complacent; don't let your family's well-being be at risk, friend.

 

[sotc]

i was making a joke to my wife wanting me to get it it is a very real concern that i should put more effort into

 

[Burnham]

Yeah, I got the joke ...but it's really easy for a young, strong man like yourself to not want to think about his own mortality...trust me, I know it well. Plus, that insurance money goes out without any really evident benefit. Now that I'm older, I see a little clearer than I did at your age...just throwing my noise in, worth every penny you paid to read it, Willie.

 

[Old Monkey]

The life insurance we looked at today seemed pretty affordable. It is more affordable the younger you are. We are going to do a twenty year policy. If I kick the bucket within 20 years, Kathleen will receive 700,000. The policy costs around $200/month for the both of us. If we were to get a lifetime policy now at age 41 it would be very expensive. This plan is basically a hedge.

 

[sotc]

preciate it my friend

 

[Paul B]

we got life insurance last year when we bought our condo. made more sense than just mortgage insurance, mortgage is covered and then some if either of us pass on untimely.

Wife has a decent health plan through her work (which covers all three of us) , even during her maternity leave, not sure about the LTD or STD (? ) coverage, hope I dont have to look in to it.

 

[lumberjack]

I have my own health insurance and life insurance.

If I kick the bucket my beneficiary(ies) can live comfortably in Mississippi for 12-15 years without lifting a finger.

Workers Comp for me isn't an option for disability. They pay out 2/3 based on what you pay in. Last year the rates went to 46%, didn't check, but I bet they're in the mid to upper 50's this year. (33%, 38%, 46% is 05-07).

My take on disability for us (unless you get a swinging deal) is to save money each month (not practicing it though ) similar to what the policy would cost you. That way you have additional savings that can amass to quite a large sum of jingle. The beautiful part is you still own the money

Dad had a short term disability policy aside from the unions offerings, 30 days off and it kicked in a substantial portion of his regular pay for 6 months. That was through ABWA.

 

[stehansen]

Get it Willie.

 

[Koa Man]

Years ago when I looked at TDI, all my insurance guy could find was $2000 a month paid to me after the first 30 days and the policy was about $1800 a year. As was mentioned earlier, no one wants to insure someone who climbs trees for a living. If I did get the insurance, I would not have collected anything as I haven't gotten hurt since I broke my wrist in 1989. As LJ mentioned, better to put the money in the bank.